Standalone Apps Finally Making their way to Android Wear

Android Wear was finally announced, with the full SDK released last week at Google I/O. Along with a couple Android Wear devices now available for pre-order, shipping next week. Many of the apps available for Android Wear coincide with their Android apps. For example Google Keep and Evernote are available, but they are part of the Android APK. And not a standalone app. However, some standalone apps are finally making their way to the Play Store. Now according to Google “apps can 1) run on only a smartphone and send simple notifications to an Android Wear, 2) have an APK that runs on both devices, or 3) run only on the Android Wear device itself”. So now we have some that only run on Android Wear. Thanks to developer Marian Zorilla.

Marian Zorilla has already submitted a couple of Android Wear apps that are available now for download, these include Wear Calc and Wear Compass. The Wear calc app is pretty self explanatory, it’s basically a calculator for your Android Wear smartwatch. Nothing too special about this. But the Wear Compass is a bit more strange. Because these Android Wear devices – at least the ones we’ve already gotten – have a compass built in already. So it’s pretty useless right now. There’s a video of the Wear Calc app at the bottom of this post for those interested.

It’s worth noting that this is just the beginning. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of new Android Wear apps coming out over the next few weeks and even months. Especially once more and more people get their hands on an Android Wear device. So far only the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live are available for $229 and $199 respectively, but the Moto 360 should be available later this summer, for those interested in that one. How many of you are interested in picking up an Android Wear smartwatch?